News

Benefit Corporations are a new and innovative corporate charter, available in only seven states, allowing a company’s board of directors to consider social or environment objectives ahead of profits. Hanson Bridgett LLP and Full Circle Fund teamed up Tuesday night to present an exclusive panel of experts who spoke about the Benefit Corporation revolution now taking place in California.

The legal structure of a Benefit Corporation is designed to shield the board from investor lawsuits, so companies that care about more than just their bottom line now have the opportunity to do well financially and “do good” in the world. View the slides in a new window or click below.

Hanson Bridgett Partner Jonathan Storper gave participants a solid overview of the new designation. Storper was instrumental in passing the new legislation which went into effect in January 2012. Dermot Hikisch of B-Lab pointed out the differences between good companies and good marketing, the B Impact rating system and performance standards, and how B-Corps are already affecting the economy. Full Circle Fund Founder Josh Becker wrapped up the panel with insights from the VC and investment community.

Members and guests left excited about the possibilities of this new sector. We’d like to thank Hanson Bridgett and moderator Leslie Keil for partnering with us on this event and helping energize our members and partners about this new movement in California.

Posted in Hanson Bridgett, event, Josh Becker, resources

The 2012 grant cycle has officially launched in all three circles. We now have 11 Inquiry Teams actively seeking out great organizations and social entrepreneurs who could benefit from Full Circle Fund’s support. If you are a member interested in helping us shape the inquiry process but aren’t already involved, email Jillian to join a team! Potential members are encouraged to join a team as a pre-cursor to becoming a member. The issue areas are:

EDUCATION

Human Capital
Technolgoy, Innovation & School Models
Policy & Advocacy

ENVIRONMENT

Oceans & Water
Exposure to Nature
Environmental Evangelism
Environmental Health & Jobs

GLOBAL ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

Agriculture
Health
Entrepreneurship & Workforce Development
Strengthening Communities & Technology

At the March Meetings, teams will share how they are approaching impact for their topic, and announce up to ten organizations under consideration. Meeting participants will then have a chance to provide feedback and additional ideas in real time. A huge thank you to the Members who have stepped up to lead, as well as the folks already participating on the teams! See upcoming meetings.

Posted in Global Economic Opportunity, members, environment, education, grant cycle

Have you ever become tongue-tied trying to succinctly explain the many nuts and bolts of Full Circle Fund’s model? We partnered with the folks at elefint designs to create a simple and fun infographic that explains what we do in just a few steps.

Click the image or here to see a zoomed in version.

The process was featured on .net magazine’s website in the article “How to Create Great Infographics”.

As the article states, infographics are a great tool to “communicate something complex, nuanced, or dense in a short period of time”. Check out some other data visualizations on infogra.ph. Let us know what you think!

Posted in elefint designs, resources

Congratulations to Full Circle Fund Member and Hanson Bridgett LLP Senior Counsel Leslie Keil, who was recently honored by the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights with the James T. Caleshu Award. At the 25th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Awards Luncheon, she was recognized for her outstanding pro-bono contributions to the Legal Services for Entrepreneurs (LSE) program.

The James T. Caleshu Award, presented January 26 in San Francisco, honors those who have made extraordinary pro bono contributions to the Committee, an organization devoted to advancing the rights of people of color, the poor, immigrants and refugees, and its LSE program.

Over the past year, Leslie has donated her time to LSE, helping low-income individuals start their own for-profit businesses. In this video by Hanson Bridgett, Leslie explains more about the partnership with LSE.

Pro Bono Transactional Work from Hanson Bridgett on Vimeo.

Leslie has been a member of Full Circle Fund since 2009, was involved with past grant project, La Cocina, and is currently a key leader in the organization, serving as Co-Chair of our Global Economic Opportunity Circle. Hanson Bridgett is also a Full Circle Fund Strategic Partner. Congratulations and thank you, Leslie!

Posted in Leslie Keil, Hanson Bridgett, corporate supporter, member leaders

Samantha Ostrin joined our office as an intern in January 2012 and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome this new addition to the team. She was selected last fall out of a competitive pool of applicants to continue her growth and education through experiential learning at Full Circle Fund.

As a student at San Francisco State University, Samantha has been studying Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration (RPTA). Because nonprofits are an integral part of the RPTA major, Samantha is excited to put all she has learned in the classroom to the test this semester and build skills in the areas of marketing/communications, event planning, membership and development.

Samantha is looking forward to maximizing her time with Full Circle Fund’s members and its network of Bay Area non-profits and business leaders before she completes her internship and graduates in May 2012. Make sure to introduce yourself to Samantha when you see her at Circle Meetings and events this Winter and Spring! Read more about Samantha.

Posted in staff, special announcement

Joe Kleinschmidt was announced as Full Circle Fund’s 2011 Member of the Year at the December 14 year-end celebration.

He was selected for this top honor based on his active participation, growth as a leader, and contributions to Full Circle Fund and the greater community. By day, Joe is VP of Cloud Products at Telligent, an enterprise social networking software company.

Joe has been an active member of the Global Economic Opportunity Circle since Fall 2010. He quickly stepped up to a leadership role, and together with member Lucy Burns, became a co-lead of the Family Independence Initiative (FII) project.

Upon receiving the award, Joe addressed the crowd by sharing, “Full Circle Fund is filled with so many inspiring people – and the organization just keeps getting stronger. This is just an incredible honor.”

FII is a national center for anti-poverty innovation offering results-based, community-driven solutions to reducing poverty. The team focused on helping FII launch a web-based community-building site. Under Joe and Lucy’s guidance, they worked to identify the audiences that could engage on this site, assist with messaging, positioning and actual website design, and drive identified audiences to the website to create a vibrant online community.

“As a leader, Joe does an excellent job of asking the hard questions, and drawing on team members to leverage their knowledge and skills,” said Global Economic Opportunity Circle Co-Chair Leslie Keil, “He made sure everyone felt invested in the project by providing the right amount of insight, direction, and encouragement.”

Joe joins the ranks of previous recipients including Environment/ Energy Co-Chair Braden Penhoet (2010), GEO Grant Cycle Director Annette Brinton (2009), Greg Nelson (2008) who is now working in the White House Office of Public Engagement as the Associate Director for Energy, Environment, and Technology, Melanie Nutter (2007), who is now the Director of the San Francisco Office of the Environment, and software developer, entrepreneur, start-up adviser, and angel investor Dave McClure (2006).

Joe will continue in a leadership role as a Grant Cycle Director for the circle in 2012. Congratulations and thank you, Joe! View more photos from the event.

Posted in Joe Kleinschmidt, Family Independence Initiative, Global Economic Opportunity, special announcement, member leaders

On December 14 our Members, Partners, and their guests celebrated the end of year with a gathering at Blu Restaurant & Bar. Members were treated to chair massages as a thank you for their hard work this year. Guests also brought contributions to our former grant partner Hamilton Family Center’s Adopt A Family program.

A highlight of the evening was when Joe Kleinschmidt was announced as 2011 Member of the Year. Read more about it here. Thank you to all who made it a great evening!

Posted in events

In August, Environment/Energy Circle Members voted to focus on Collaborative Consumption, which is based on the notion that “we’re wired to share,” and it’s good for the environment to do so. Within that issue area, three organizations were selected as potential grant partners for a mini-grant cycle: BC3 (Business Council on Climate Change), SCRAP, and Cradle to Cradle.

The results are in. Our Fall 2011 grant partner is BC3, led by social entrepreneur Katherine Michonski.

BC3 is a public-private partnership working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in San Francisco. Our team is doing outreach planning to identify businesses that could install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, and creating recommendations that will be implemented via Charge Across Town, an EV public awareness campaign and partnership between BC3 and SF Environment.

We’d like to thank our Environment/Energy Circle members for putting together this mini-grant cycle during Fall 2011. A special thank you goes out to Circle members who extended themselves to support the grant cycle in a short timeframe, including Michael Frost, Amie Vaccaro, Sienna Rogers, Melanie Nutter, Anne Boyd Rabkin, Bryan Esterly, Beth Trask, Trina Martynowicz, Chuck Hornbrook, Chris Hobbs, and Radha Blackman.

Posted in BC3, grant, environment

A new documentary, inspired by the 2007 memoir, “The Power Of Two” offers an intimate portrayal of the bond between half-Japanese twin sisters Anabel Stenzel and Isabel Stenzel Byrnes, their battle with the fatal genetic disease cystic fibrosis (CF), and miraculous survival through double lung transplants.

In many ways, “The Power Of Two” is a Full Circle Fund production. Producing partners former Technology Circle Chair Marc Smolowitz, an Academy Award nominated documentary producer, and Environment Circle member Andrew Byrnes, met in 2008 at a Full Circle Fund meeting.

In mid-2009, when Andrew told Marc that his wife and sister-in-law, the central characters of “The Power Of Two,” were bound for a month-long tour of Japan to tell their story of receiving organ transplants (transplantation is rare and controversial in Japan), the two decided to launch a multimedia project and international call-to-action to inspire organ donation and cystic fibrosis awareness centered around a feature documentary film.

Early in production, Full Circle Fund’s Vice President of Programs Jillian Misrack Galbete, an organ donor herself, joined the project’s international advisory board.

“The Power Of Two” will hold its world premiere as part of DocuWeeks, the prestigious Academy Award-qualifying documentary showcase presented by the International Documentary Association. “The Power Of Two” will premiere locally at the Castro Theatre on September 10, 2011. Purchase tickets and find out more information here.

Posted in Andrew Byrnes, Marc Smolowitz, member leaders, technology

The Microsoft Alumni Foundation announced its nominees for the 2011 Integral Fellows Awards, a yearly list of former Microsoft employees who have made a meaningful difference in the daily lives of others by using their talents, time and resources to contribute to the world. We’re excited to share that Jeff Camp, Chairman of Full Circle Fund’s Education Circle is on the list.

Read the complete list of nominees and their organizations.

Up to four of the 19 nominees will receive a $25,000 unrestricted grant for their organization at the Microsoft Alumni Foundation Celebration Event on November 16 in Seattle. The nominees present nonprofit organizations either started by Microsoft alumni or where Microsoft alumni have made major contributions.

Judges include Phyllis Campbell, chairman of Pacific Northwest operations at JPMorgan Chase, Ashoka founder and CEO William Drayton, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta, and eBay founder and Chairman Pierre Omidyar.

Posted in jeff camp, education, Uncategorized